Comment by ajdlinux | Hacker News Reader

Comment by ajdlinux | Hacker News Reader

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There was a lawsuit:

"U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) uses the “Specification for Identification of Bolts and Screws,” ANSI - ASME B18.2.1 1981 (the “Specification”) to distinguish bolts from screws.1 In Rocknel Fastener, Inc. v. United States, 24 C.I.T. 900, 118 F.Supp. 2d 1238 (Ct. Int’l. Trade 2000), the Court of International Trade (CIT) sanctioned the use of the Specification for this purpose, stating that it provides a well-recognized, comprehensive basis for the common and commercial meaning of bolt and screw as understood by the fastener industry in the United States. See Id., at 906 and 913, 118 F.Supp. 2d at 1243 and 1249. The standard is full of industry jargon, so to make it easier to use, we have combined it here with illustrations and glossary terms from Fastener Standards 6th Edition, Industrial Fasteners Institute, Cleveland, Ohio 44114, 1988."

Yes, and in case anyone wanted to question whether this really came up there, i'll give the relevant paragraphs:

"The products at issue in this case consist of a variety of metal fasteners that Rocknel imported from Japan in 1997. The fasteners, which are fabricated from metal alloys, have rod-shaped bodies and hexagonally shaped heads. Their bodies are fully or partially threaded. Rocknel has admitted that the fasteners were designed to be installed in holes of assembled parts and that the fasteners were designed to be tightened or released by turning their heads.

...

The Customs Service liquidated the fasteners under subheading 7318.15.80 of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (“HTSUS”). Subsequently, Rocknel filed a protest, claiming that the fasteners should have been classified under HTSUS subheading 7318.15.20."

(15.80 is screws, 15.20 is bolts)

...

"The court concluded that the tariff schedule required that the terms “bolt” and “screw” be given mutually exclusive definitions.

...

Because Customs had looked to the ANSI Specification as the source of the definitions of “bolt” and “screw” for tariff classification purposes, and because Rocknel had admitted that under the ANSI Specification the fasteners at issue in this case would be classified as screws and not bolts, the court granted summary judgment to Customs upholding the agency's classification of the fasteners."

I secretly thought the diagrams were kind of cool. I'm saddened to learn they were taken from elsewhere.

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